Paradise
by mandyTbickerson
Summary: What if Helen Druitt was reality and Helen Magnus was just a dream created to ease the pain of a life gone wrong?
1. Chapter 1

**This story is actual a fanvid I made. I was listening to the song "Paradise" by coldplay and just had to make an OOTB video for it. Then I thought of the backstory and this is what spilled out. Nothing fancy and no real effort put into it. I just had such a story for the video that I had to share this. Reviews are always appreciated. Enjoy!**

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She had never done anything extraordinary. She had never gone anywhere exotic. She once thought she had married the man she loved but even that turned out wrong. Her whole life was wrong. As a young girl she had dreamt of what her future would be like. She wanted adventures, excitement. She wanted the life she read about in books, a life where she was loved and even looked up to.

But it wasn't meant to be. No, Helen Druitt was completely ordinary, living a life without purpose.

It wasn't until her separation from her husband that she began creating a world worthy of her childhood dreams. It started out simple enough. She thought up a house, well more of a castle, where she lived with her daughter and best friend. She would day dream for hours about the days she had with her imaginary daughter. They often went on adventures. They had treasure hunts, went to museums, and to the zoo. Helen didn't like the zoo. She didn't like seeing the creatures locked up when they could roaming free in their natural habitat. She especially didn't like the idea of the animals being put on display for the pleasure of others.

Even after she left her dream world the zoo stuck with her. Then she had an idea. What if she took in creatures that were so _abnormal_ in society's eyes that they were mistreated and killed simply because they were different? What if her house could also serve as a Sanctuary?

This idea took off and she spent hours thinking of names for the creatures of her fantasy. Nobody in her real life cared because she didn't have anyone. The only living thing that she loved was her cat, Henry. She would tell him about the world she created and even told him of her adopted son she had created. A werewolf type creature she had named Henry.

Helen thought up new friends and old friends. She even included her neighbors in her fantasy. The Helen in her dreams, Helen Magnus, was an abnormal herself and had known some of the most famous people in history.

And for the first time in a long while, Helen Druitt was happy.


	2. Chapter 2

She had just finished her latest painting and was looking it over. The bright colors looked lovely and she was quite happy with the finished product. Her agent was surely going to pleased. She washed the paint from her hands and got into her bed. Immediately she entered her dreamworld. Helen's mind often created dramatic situations that kept things exciting and tonight was no different. Ashley had been kidnapped, brainwashed, and was now trying to kill her. It was all fake and she knew her army of friends would save the day but knowing her daughter was in danger scared Helen. When she awoke the next morning she couldn't help but feel a little upset.

Helen brought her garbage outside, pausing before returning to her house when she heard voices coming from the front of her house.

"No, nobody lives here with her. Just a cat. I know. It's sad really. To be so alone and at her age she'll probably never have kids."

Helen slowly crept around the house, careful to keep hidden. One her neighbors, Abby her name was, was talking on the phone as she got the mail. Helen noticed her protruding belly and desperately wanted to reveal herself and tell the young woman that she did have a child, a daughter.

But that wasn't true. Ashley, Henry, Kate. None of them were real. She didn't have any children. Helen could feel the tears building in her eyes as she quickly walked back inside her house. She saw the painting from the night before. Its bright colors screaming at her. Angrily she picked up a tube of black paint and smeared onto the painting, using her hands to cover it, to hide the happiness. She looked at what she had done and unconsciously thought of her dreamworld. Ashley was there, looking at her. But she was sad. She was crying. Helen was crying too.

"Ashley, please!"

"Mom."

In a flash of determination Ashley vanished. She was gone. She was dead.

Helen snapped back to reality, tears poruing down her face as her knees gave out. The black paint was all over her hands and clothes. She sobbed, unable to accept it as true. She thought of idea after idea, of ways Ashley could have survived but nothing worked.

That night she dipped into the pills her psychiatrist had given so many months ago.

And for the first time in a long while, she dreamt of nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

The world seemed to be spinning around her as she stood still. She still visited her fantasy world but it did not bring the happiness it once had. She painted landscapes of trees, unable to come up with anything different. She heard her neighbors talk about her. They called her creepy and sad. Helen didn't care. Even a world of her own creation went wrong. She truly didn't know why she had ever expected anything different.

One day the girl, Abby, brought her Scottish shortbread. The poor girl had tried to cheer Helen up but was doing a terrible job. Helen didn't want to be "cheered up". Then she mentioned children and Helen couldn't help but think of Ashley. Abby left and Helen threw the shortbread away. In a few days she would return the tin and say it was delicious.

That afternoon she took a nap and dreamt of her sanctuary again. For once, she actually felt a little better when she awoke. Until she heard a knock at the door.

It was John. In this world her was a very powerful lawyer, a power monger, and Helen's husband. In the Sanctuary world Helen had given him a backstory that only he was worthy of. He was Jack the Ripper. It wasn't his choice though. The John of reality hadn't always been the way he was. Helen had fallen in love with a different man. It was the power that came with his job that had corrupted him just as the energy creature had corrupted the other John.

His visits had become less and less pleasant in recent years and Helen always dreaded them. She hadn't seen him since she had created her fantasy world. If noticed her change in mental soundness he did not say anything. No, toady he had a different agenda. He handed her some papers. She took them and opened it. Divorce papers. She knew that they were over. That some things could never be fixed but to actually think that her marriage was over, for good, hurt worse than she expected.

He left, Helen closing the door and watching him walk away for the last time.

The days went on and Helen escaped to her dreams, her paradise, more and more. It had been about a month since the divorce had been finalized and the last person she had expected at her doorstep that day was her hus-, ex-husband.

He was worried about her. He told her he had made a mistake, that they were meant to be together. But they couldn't be together. They could never be together again. And they both knew that. He left her with an emptiness she had not felt for a long time. It was unbearable. She ran from her house and got in her car. She didn't have a destination in mind, she just needed to drive. As she drove she thought of the sanctuary. Of Ashley. Henry. Will. Nikola, James, her old friend. She wanted nothing but to live in that world. She didn't know how or when she decided.

She had made the turn a hundred times before. From the city and back. It was a sharp turn. There had been many accidents there before. Nobody would suspect anything. The lack of skid marks may be suggestive but she really didn't care. She didn't have anyone who would miss her. Instead of turning right she kept going. She felt free as her car flew through the air, darkness overpowering her.

She opened her eyes to see her neighbor, Will, standing next to her. For a moment she was confused. But this wasn't her neighbor, Dr. William Zimmerman. This was her protege.

Her dream had become her reality. She looked in front of her and saw the most beautiful sight she had ever seen.

The Sanctuary.

And for the first time in a long while, Helen Druitt was right where she belonged.

Paradise.

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**And there it is.**


End file.
